How high is too high for ph?

and this goes back to the age-old argument of what pH does this fish like and what does that fish like.

unless youre keeping fish in something extremely acid or extremely alkaline, they will most likely adapt. breed? maybe not. live and live nicely? quite well.

ct-death is right, not ALL fish can adapt to a wide range of pH, but MOST can. some people will tell you that a fish will live a 'happier' and more 'robust' lifestyle in a tank with a pH that matches their native surroundings.. let me tell you, i have never EVER messed with the pH of any of my tanks, ever, (let me repeat myself, EVER..) and the only losses i have ever had were due to initial acclimation, and natural cause deaths (ie. age). were my fish 'happy'? that i couldnt tell you... but they never jumped out of the open-lid tanks they were in, and they ate well, and they were lively.. thats the closest thing i could see to them being 'happy'.

i wouldnt change your pH, it's probably just fine. :)
 
Thanks very much to everyone. I didn't really want to have the hassel of changing my pH, I just didn't want to slowly torture fish to death either. My daughter is really into this whole process and a massive die off would be hard to deal with for me and her.

So would using the softened water be a problem? Our straight well water is only available outside right now and once winter comes I would need to make sure I had a inside faucet that brings in straight well water. I have been using softened water for water changes so far because our well is 90+ feet and stays a balmy 40 degrees year round- a bit cold. Since the softener uses salt as a softening agent do I not add aquarium salt to the water?

My biggest problem with the difference between the pH in the tank and out of the softener is I am limited as to how much water I can change in a day to alleviate the nitrites I am still batteling due to end of cycle. I have tested no ammonia for 2 weeks and nitrates around 10-30 for 1 1/2 weeks but the nitrites continue to stay high even after water changes (.5-1.5). I change as much water as I can until the pH shows it has changed by .4 then I wait till the next day (I've been doing 2-3 small changes--5 gallon on a 45 gallon tank-- per day in an effort to bring down the levels. I also use Prime water conditioner which says it is supposed to make nitrites non-toxic to fish but I don't want to depend on that. I purposely did a fishless cycle using ammonia and Cycle to eliminate this headache and yet here I am...

Where can I get driftwood to naturally lower the pH some? We used to live in Florida but MN, our new location, is a bit far.

The fish appear to be happy. They are swimming through the whole tank, eating and begging for food whenever my daughter comes within eyesight of the tank (I have put the food on the top shelf of a far off cupboard to prevent her helping them snack), and the two males are constantly vying for the attention of the females. I figure that covers most of the basic desires in fishy land right?

Thanks a bunch- I wish I had found this sites directions for a fishless cycle before I started. The set I used had a phobia for numbers so I never knew what numbers I was shooting for during the cycle. I think I basically did a baby cycle and now I'm doing a second one since I added fish.

Elizabeth
 
hmm.. driftwood won't lower your pH as drastically as some say it will... it MAY over time lower it by maybe .1 or .2, but youd have to put a LOT of wood in a tank for a LONG time before it did anything crazy. if you want to lower it that way, look into peat filtration.
 
ok, so I left some water from the softened water out all night in a glass dish and tested it this morning and, suprise suprise, the pH is right back to 8.4 so I would say at least my water is stable. I suppose knowing this I can just change the water using well water and letting it warm up in a bucket before changing, no point in using softened water unless that salt is ok for the fish anyway. It is easier to use the faucet softened water because I can get it the right temp. off I go for another PWC to bring the nitrites back down...
Elizabeth
 
Your not gonna need the salt at all. Would it hurt using the softener? I don't think your gonna see any drastic changes with or without it, I didn't notice a difference after switching from a softened well to city water, but if you don't have room to have a container full of water, than you don't have room. Softened water it is. If you have the room and motivation how about an air stone, and a couple of heaters, because a few large heaters will heat up a trashcan full of water quickly enough so you won't have to have it set up all the time. Maybe set it up in the morning if your worried.

If it were my tanks.. I would just use the softener so you could have the right temp out of the tank A.)because I use a python (is there any other way to do it?) and B.) I have way to many water changes to do to have trash cans holding water all over my house.
 
yeah, I'm just going to use the softened water-- I have an additional reason-- C. I have two preschoolers-4 and 1 who are attracted to buckets of water without the common sense to not dive in headfirst, let alone a trashcan :headshake2: . Unfortantly i can't use a python with our current septic system since it would funnel too much water into the tank and potentially back up into the house--- I'd rather carry a few buckets.
I do appreciate everyone's feedback-- just knowing the pH is a guideline/ideal not absolute mandatory helps. I was afraid the LFS was just telling me whatever to get me to buy the fish.
Elizabeth
 
"Wait wait wait...Since when are platies "really sensitive fish"? Not even sensitive, but "really" sensitive?"

I was thinking that, too.
Platies are some of the most hardy fish in the hobby!

I have too many of them! LOL

About to give another bunch away.
 
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